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In the second season of Scrubs, one of the few genuinely funny comedies left on TV, life at Sacred Heart Hospital doesn't get any easier for Drs. John "J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff), Chris Turk (Donald Faison), and Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke), who are now residents. In fact, things only seem to get worse for them, but for us, that only provides for more laughs.
In the first season, much of the focus was on how demanding the life at a hospital could be. Evil bosses like Dr. Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins), mentally unbalanced mentors like Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley), and a psychotic Janitor (Neil Flynn, now a regular) made life at the hospital hell. While there were a few bright spots, like Nurse Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), who became fast friends with J.D. and became Turk's girlfriend, there were many hardships to overcome. Now, while things still are difficult at the hospital, the newbies have got their routines down. This year, the characters' personal lives serve as the focus.
One of the biggest story arcs involves Dr. Cox's ex-wife Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller), who is pregnant with another man's baby. Meanwhile, Turk decides to propose to Carla (in a very hilarious way), while Elliot and J.D. still find dating a challenge. Elliot falls head over heals for a very nice, very attractive guy, but when she learns that he's a nurse at the hospital, she has a hard time accepting the fact. Meanwhile, J.D. has a constant stream of bizarre relationships from Lisa the Gift Shop Girl (Sarah Lancaster) to Jamie Moyer (Amy Smart), AKA Tasty Coma Wife (or T.C.W. for short), a woman who's husband is slowly dying while in a coma.
Sound effects and fantasy sequences are still a major contributor to the comedy this year, but not as much as last year. Still, this show has some of the best cutaway sequences this side of Family Guy. Some of my favorites include J.D. and a German patient dancing to the song 99 Red Balloons, while another has Elliot and Jamie doing the "Rerun Dance", complete with matching outfits (there is a very interesting story about that in the extras section). Furthermore, in one of the most original openings in sitcom history, singer/songwriter Colin Hay performs his song Overkill and follows J.D. around the hospital, showing up in bizarre places, including the morgue. Another great thing that I started noticing this year is the very subtle placement of things from earlier episodes in subsequent ones. While this show came before Arrested Development, AD is what made inside jokes like that famous, so I'm going to compare these references to those of AD. For instance, in one episode, J.D. remembers how he bought a ventriloquist dummy to impress women, then in a later episode, we see it in his room.
Some of my favorite jokes are the ones involving the Janitor, who was allowed to interact with characters besides J.D. this year. He is still tormenting J.D. for no reason, but this year, he begins to badger Turk and Dr. Cox. Originally, there was going to be a twist where he was only a figment of J.D.'s imagination, but when they realized that they were going to stay on the air for a while, they started writing scenes for the Janitor with other characters. Neil Flynn is a comic genius; he delivers his lines so well, and is great at improv. In the alternate takes extra, some of the greatest stuff are the things that he didn't say.
Still, one of the greatest things about this season was the episode "His Story". Nearly every episode begins with the word My, because each episode is narrated by J.D. In "His Story", the episode is told from Dr. Cox's point of view and we begin to see what makes him tick. This was a very new and fresh episode, and in every season since, there has been an episode told from another character's perspective (so far we've gotten Turk and Elliot, and Carla is coming up next, but I can't wait for the Janitor to get one, but it probably won't happen).
The list of guest stars this year may even be better than last year. Many actors from Spin City showed up this year (Bill Lawrence also works on that show), including Heather Locklear, Alan Ruck, and Richard Kind. Furthermore, Dick Van Dyke, Jay Leno, Jay Mohr, Ryan Reynolds, David Copperfield, and Fred Berry. Furthermore, the returning characters of Dr. Doug Murphy (Johnny Kastl), Dr. Todd Quinlan (Robert Maschio), Nurse Laverne Roberts (Aloma Wright), and Ted Buckland (Sam Lloyd) had many great appearances.
The music on the show is almost a character itself. Often, the background music is used to help tell the story or transition between drama and comedy. There are very few shows that I can think of that music plays such a pivotal role (Veronica Mars is one of them, and even that show doesn't use music as such an essential thing).
Finally, the extras on this set are amazing. Television DVD sets tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to extras. Sometimes, they'll have one or two good commentaries (with a bunch of other lousy ones) and some featurettes that are very hit or miss. On the Scrubs sets, all of the featurettes are entertaining. I haven't listened to any commentary tracks yet, but, judging by the quality of the other features, I am sure that they are also very well done.
In short, this is another great Scrubs set. I would reccomend it to everyone with the one caveat (to some people at least) that some of the sex scenes are a little racy. The show is shot at an abandoned hospital, which many of the network execs find to be either too far or too creepy to visit on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the crew is able to get away with stuff that most shows couldn't, so there are a few very steamy scenes, and if this is a problem for you, beware. Otherwise, enjoy another great season of TV.
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What's there not to like? It's Scrubs!!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2018